His Healer
by Couer de Danse
Summary: He was plagued with nightmares every night. She wanted to help. One-shot.


_A/N: Written as Beater 1 of the Appleby Arrows for Round 2 of the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition. _

_Prompts: Draco, sleeping. (word) 'Wonderful' and (quote) "So many books, so little time."_

His Healer

* * *

"_Draco." Red eyes were the only thing Draco could make out through his swollen and bruised eyes. _

"_Y-yes, my Lord?" _

"_I hope you've taken consideration from what I've told you today." The Dark Lord's voice was like venom to Draco's blood. Chilling to the bone, core, and _soul.

"_I h-have, my Lord." Draco was still twitching. _

"_Good. But, just in case-"_

_Draco was already screaming in pain before the curse was even said. _

"_-Crucio."_

* * *

"AHHHH!"

Draco woke up a sweaty, panting, sobbing mess.

That had been the sixth nightmare that week.

Draco sat up from his bed and clutched his head. He remembered his nightmare- of course he had. Trying to calm himself down he called out for his House Elf, who appeared in front of him in seconds.

"Misty. Water, please," He was barely able to choke that out, and Draco knew he had been screaming in his sleep.

The nightmares had been going on for four years.

Misty reappeared in front of him with a glass of water, which she handed to him. Draco greedily downed the glass, and wiped his mouth. Handing it back to Misty he asked, "Misty. Could you get me a Pepper-Up Potioin?"

"Yes, Master Draco, but it is the last one," she said. Draco nodded anyway, he gave himself a mental note to make or buy more. Within seconds the House Elf was gone and back with a bottle in her hands. Draco drank the potion, making a face in the process.

Feeling more alert, and a little bit better, Draco went to start his usual morning tasks. After he had gotten showered and dressed, however, he looked at his watch to realize it was only 5:30 in the morning. Groaning to himself, he flopped down into his reading chair. He looked at the small bookshelf next to him, the ones he had filled up with books he needed to read, but hadn't yet. Although Malfoy Manor had a vast library of it's own, Draco preferred to keep a reading area in his room; it meant less walking for him anyway.

He sighed to himself, "So many books, so little time," he said. But in reality, it was not even six in the morning, so Draco had plenty of time. In fact, he read through an entire book before he realized it was approaching nine in the morning, and he had to go to the Ministry where he worked in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. At the rate he was going, he was sure to be head of the department in a couple of years.

Grabbing his cloak, and shoving a piece of toast that Misty had forcefully given to him, he disapparated.

Draco was immediately swarmed by a group of girls waiting outside his office door.

"Hello, Mr. Malfoy." She was too plain looking for him.

"Hello, Miss Reed."

"Good morning, Mr. Malfoy." She was too boring for him.

"Good morning, Miss Wren."

"You look dashing, Mr. Malfoy." She was too dumb for him.

"Thank you, Miss Harlen, I do my best. You look very beautiful today, as well."

"Malfoy." Well, this was a new voice.

"That's _Mr. _Malfoy to you, Granger."

"That's _Healer _Granger to you, Malfoy."

The blonde and brunette both glared at each other. Draco closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "What are you doing here then, Healer Granger? Last I checked, St. Mungo's was in't the Department of Magical Law Enforcement's office.

Hermione Granger stiffened. "Well, had you been here earlier, you would have known that one of your fellow co-workers had a bit of a nasty accident with an awful customer. All I can disclose to you is that he was exposed to a cursed object. We were able to get him to St. Mungo's, but I came back to make sure know one else was exposed, and to get rid of the object immediately. And now I'm done, so if you'll excuse me..." Hermione tried to get past Draco, who stood in her way. When she realized he wasn't moving, she raised an eyebrow.

"If you would be so kind to move Mr. Mal-"

"Why did they entrust you in getting rid of the curse and object? Isn't that, I don't know, a Curse Breaker's job?" he asked.

Hermione smirked. "Let's just say I'm a woman of many talents she said." Then she managed to move Draco to the side and squeezed past him. As she left, Draco still felt dumbfounded by her words. It was almost as if she was flirting with him!

He also pretended to not notice how wonderful she had smelt when she had squeezed past him. No, he hadn't noticed at all the warm vanilla scent. And no, he would not be thinking about it for the rest of the day.

* * *

"_AHHHHHHHH!"_

_Draco didn't think he could do it. He didn't understand how he had been doing it. _

"_No," the voice was crying, "Stop, no, _please."

"_Aw, is the ickle Mudblood upset? Oh, Bellatrix will give you something to be real upset over." _

_Draco forced himself to keep watching. He watched as his insane Aunt pulled out a knife. He watched as she carved it into someone's skin. He watched as the word 'Mudblood' appeared on the girl's pale, flawless arm. _

_Draco watched the blood run down it. _

_Draco heard the screams shake the room. _

_Draco felt himself be a coward for not doing anything. _

_He was a coward. Here, one of the supposed saviors of the Wizarding World, also his enemy from school, was being tortured. He wouldn't be surprised if she was dead within the next hour. _

_He didn't think he could watch Hermione Granger die. _

_But Draco also didn't have a choice. And she wouldn't be the first Mud- Muggleborn to go. And she wouldn't be the last._

* * *

"No!" Draco rose out of his bed so fast that he lost balance and fell off. He managed to hit his head on the bedside table, and felt the warm blood trail down his face to his mouth. He was losing consciousness fast, and his last thought was about how the blood tasted in his mouth as he called out to his House Elf.

* * *

"Who the bloody hell threw me in front of the Knight Bus?" Draco groggily said as he woke up. He looked to see a bushy haired girl through his blurry eyesight. "Granger, is that you?" he asked.

"That's _Healer _Granger to you," the voice said, mockingly. Draco would have rolled his eyes if he didn't think it would make his head hurt even more. "And you managed to crack your head open on your own. Quite an accomplishment, Mr. Malfoy, even if I do say so myself."

"Then how did I get here?" Draco asked, puzzled. He didn't think he would have risked apparating with a cracked head. Not that he did remember much of the night, or was it morning, in the first place.

"Your House Elf actually managed to fix you up, but when she had given you a blood replenishing potion, it seemed that it did work as it was supposed to, and you started having a seizure. So she sent for one of the Healers immediately, where you were then taken in as a patient," Hermione explained.

Draco nodded his head in acknowledgment. "Why didn't the blood replenishing potion work? Why did it have a negative affect on me?" he asked. Hermione lifted her eyes from her paper.

"We found traces of the Dreamless Sleep potion and Pepper-Up potion in your system, Mr. Malfoy."

Draco was confused, but he nodded. "Yes, I take one or the other every night. What's wrong with that?"

"Mr. Malfoy, we found _too _much of those potions in your system. As the muggles would say, it seems you have come as close to overdosing on potions as you can in the Wizarding World. The blood replenishing potion added into your system was the tipping point."

"But I'm fine now, right? I can just go check out and then keep taking the potions as usual?" he asked.

Hermione gave him an unimpressed look, "Really, Mr. Malfoy, what you need is to rest and rest your body from it's large exposure to magic. Not even pureblooded wizards can sustain that much magic in their blood," Hermione said rather sarcastically.

Draco ignored the jab, and asked the next question more to himself than Hermione. "What am I supposed to do about my nightmares now?" he whispered, grabbing his aching head.

He knew Hermione had heard by her sharp intake of breath. Clearing her throat she pretended to look interested at the papers on her hands. Hermione then looked at Draco with a contemplative look on her face.

"Have you tried therapy?" she asked.

"Therapy? Like what the muggles do when they talk to weird doctors and-" Hermione interupted him.

"You know, after the, er, war, a lot of people started doing therapy with muggles or with some Healers. I think it helped the magical folks feel closer to the muggle world, and accept it more. I'm surprised you haven't thought about doing it yourself, I know your friend Mr. Zabini did."

Draco hadn't talked to Blaise in years, but didn't tell Hermione that. He thought about doing therapy. Maybe it could help? He'd tried almost everything else, so what was the harm. He nodded, "Okay."

Hermione started at that. "Okay? Er, well okay then. Would you prefer a muggle therapist, or a Healer?" she asked, although she knew the answer was fairly obvious.

Draco thought about it for a second, before he came to a conclusion. "Granger-"

"_Healer _Granger."

"-I'm not about to exploit my past to some stranger... I think, well I know we've had a lot of history and everything. I think I'd rather talk to you. You know, since you were there, and one of the things that's haunting me... is that night." Draco finished with his eyes staring at his feet.

Hermione was confused for a second, before she knew what he was talking about. She stiffened, but instantly relaxed as she realized that she didn't want to make him uncomfortable. She could help him, and she would.

"Mr. Malfoy," she said.

Draco didn't respond or acknowledge that he had heard her.

"Malfoy."

Still nothing. Hermione took a step forward, and grabbed his chin so he could look straight in her eyes, to see what she was about to say was completely truthful.

"Draco."

He gulped.

Then Hermione pulled up one sleeve of her Healer's coat and revealed a scar that had been haunting him for years.

Mudblood.

"Draco, I don't blame you for this. In fact, you saved us. Harry's alive because you kept his identity a secret- and don't you say you didn't know it was him, because we both know that's baloney- and Voldemort's dead because Harry's alive. You helped save the Wizarding World, why should you let your actions before that haunt you?"

Draco nodded, but didn't say anything. There was silence before he choked out, "D-do you think I could go home now."

Hermione pursed her lips, but nodded. "Yes, of course," she said sharply. Draco touched her arm as she tried to rush out the door, obviously annoyed.

"Thank you, Hermione," he said with a faint smile. She smiled back, softly.

* * *

Laying awake that night, Draco waited until darkness would eventually wash over him, like it always did. He had no way of stopping it, stopping the nightmares that would seep in through his dream state. But that night, however, felt different.

And Draco Malfoy knew there would be no nightmares that night.


End file.
